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obituarySandra Pailet

Sandra Pailet, who served aspresident of the local chapterof PFLAG for many years,

passed away early in the morning of Fri-day, March 23. She was beloved through-out the entire GLBT community. A Memo-rial Celebration will be held in the nearfuture. A more comprehensive story re-garding Sandra Pailet will appear in thenext Ambush.

for a sponsor and have invited only onebusiness to be part of the project. So far,I haven’t had success. If you are interestedin sponsoring this effort, please call me.

FAB

Otis is once again celebratingthe work of New Orleans na-tive Michael Holloway

Perronne. The event will be held onWednesday, April 4th from 5 to 7pm. Michaelwill be on hand to talk with patrons andsign his books. Faubourg Marigny Arts &Books is located at 600 Frenchman St.

I’ve had the pleasure of reading two ofMichael’s books and highly recommendthem. Please take the time to check outFAB.

Artist Reception

Perrin Benham Gallery presentsa showing by Sam Rigling.Portraits of Persuasion ex-

hibit begins Thursday, April 5th, 6 to 9pm at1914 Magazine Street.

sappho psalm ...from M-22

trodding the boards

by Patrick Shannon, IIIE-mail: [email protected]

Tenn Times 3 One-Act PlaysBy Tennessee Williams

Glenn Meche has done a finejob of directing three Tennes-see Williams one-act plays

at Timm Holt’s Marigny Theatre.www.marignytheatre.org,504.218.8559.The fledgling theater venue at 1030Marigny Street has produced quite a fewcutting edge shows under various pro-duction companies; and work there getsbetter and better. A typical low-bucks venue,one is always delighted to see the hard

work of those involved show such prom-ise. Acting has always been remarkablygood. Sets a bit of a problem as is the casewith most low-bucks venues; but imagi-nation and determination and hard workpays off, especially with this current pro-duction of three Tennessee Williams one-act plays which were found among hisnotes after his death. These playlets wereinteresting to see especially for thosecurious about the development of Ten-nessee Williams’ craft as a playwright.However, Dakin, his brother, told a fellowcritic and friend of mine that “If those trunkplays were really any good, Tennesseewould have had them on stage makingmoney.” You be the judge.

Philip Gordon does a commendablejob with pleasant sound design -tying theplays together and setting the tone of thethemes with the wistful popular song PoorButterfly. At last someone has learned thatthe sound does not need to be played upat decibels so high it could compete witha fleet of jet planes or cause ears to bleed.This a small stylish venue and the sittingarrangements are caf‚ tables none ofwhich are very far from the stage. TimmHolt’s eclectic set using an upstage ar-rangement of flowing white curtains overblack curtains and appropriate furnish-ings was attractive and workable for eachof the 3 one-acts and his contribution tothe sound, lights, and costumes workedvery well.

But what has carried the shows doneat Marigny Theatre since its inception hasbeen the remarkable acting skills of itsactors. Yes, there have been the expectedamount of uneven performances but theyhave been few. Fortunately, this produc-tion is one of those which showcasessome very good performances.

In Fat Mans Wife, a play about a richdysfunctional unhappy New York Citycouple we enjoyed the high quality of theacting done by Don McCoy (Joe Cartwright)and Mandi Turner (Vera Cartwright), whounexpectedly are visited after a formalparty by Keith Launey (DennisMerriwether). These brittle characterscould have been the subjects of ColePorter or Noel Coward.

Ms. Turner, looking like a youngerLisa Baumann (a local female illusionistwho used to look like a young Liza Manelli),does a splendid job as the bored, un-happy wife of her philandering husband

(Don McCoy as Joe Cartwright) and titularcharacter. “We can spend the rest of ourlives saying unimportant things to eachother,” she says to him at the end of thiscurious play, after she has rejected theattentions of a nouveau riche young, suc-cessful playwright (Keith Launey as Den-nis Merriwether) who has tried to get herto sail away with him on a tramp steamer.She does this role with style.

Her fellow actors in this play are alsovery adept in their roles, making this playone of the best of the three. Keith Launeyis a new face on stage. He is a handsomehunky young man that seems to have anatural talent for acting. He did his role ofthe “young gentleman caller” so to speak(Dennis Merriwether), with elan andcharm. Don McCoy played the husbandJoe Cartwright with an effective bored dig-nity, oozing with the ennui of the rich whonever seem happy. Too much eye shadowdid distract from his character. Remem-ber this is a small room with the audiencein your lap. Unless you are doing a silentfilm in the black and white style of the1920s or a drag show, go easy on the MaxFactor.

The next play, Adam & Eve On AFerry was a strange study of D. H.Lawrence, or at lease his ideas about sex.T. J. Toups, usually a pretty good actor,seemed a little out of his league with thisrole as D. H. Lawrence. Mandi Turnerplayed his wife, Frida Lawrence, a briefwalk on role. And in an illuminating turn ofexcellent acting, Ricki Gee played theAmerican woman, Adriane Peabody, whoconsults Lawrence on a “near sexualencounter” that has possessed her. Ms.Gee was charming and convincing. Wherehas this fine actress been? We want

more, more, and more of Ms. Gee.The last play is one of my favorites to

have been found among the trunk ruins ofMr. William’s “lost and or hidden works.”This work, And Tell Sad Stories of theDeath of Queens, can become a campydrag show comedy unless just the rightnote of desperate loneliness andWilliamesue despair is struck.

That note was pretty well struck withthis production; and Frederick Mead did aconvincing job in the lead role as CandyDelaney, who does one of the gay world’smost convincing speeches about how

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in the parade wanted a feel and Princessegave them more than they bargained for,until they caught on she wasn’t a real girl!It was hysterical, but the Irishmen had agay old time at the corner of Franklin andRoyal anyway.

One of the highlights was when oneof the dunebuggies in the parade acceler-ated dropping an entire case of fat indi-vidually wrapped pickles at the feet of KingSatyricon V Tony Leggio, who promptlypicked them up and proceeded to distrib-ute them throughout the crowd as anyroyal would do! It was time for a cocktail.

When we got back inside Big Daddy’s,it was easier to get to the bar and thescenery had improved greatly. Many of thehandsome Irishmen in the parade poppedin to relieve themselves (not that girls, theyhad to pee), much to the delight of thecrowd inside. You don’t think those guyshad a chance to get out without giving upsome of their bounty, not booty gutter brains,their bounty of flowers, boas and beads.Yes, it was indeed festive, but then it wasback outside for the parade.

Once the parade passed the crowdwondered back into Big Daddy’s andCutter’s. Over at Cutter’s the brass bandhad already begun to play. There wasdancing and partying, and more dancingand partying. Congratulations Mac, Dudleyand Jimmy on Cutter’s second Anniver-sary. It was fab as usual!

It’s Wednesday and after a long dayin the office, we headed on out thefront door and a short walk brought

us over to Lafitte’s where Aletha was slingin’cocktails. By the time y’all read this, the 8thCrack Whore Ball will be history occurringthe evening before this Easter edition ofAmbush hits the streets on March 27.Aletha has been all geared up for the ballwhere she became an “official” has beenCrack Whore (CW) queen on March 26 atThe PopBar. Yes, Aletha was CW VII, andshe snagged the crown from us when wewere CW VI. It’s always a festive eveningfor Service Industry Personnel who’veworked through Mardi Gras. The partyalways follows Carnival usually within amonth. Those who attended vote on whowill be crowned Crack Whore for the nightand the following year. This year was a $25donation with open bar benefiting In ThisTogether. Check in the next Ambush tosee who was crowned Crack Whore VIII,the year of The 8 Ball. After a few withAletha, we started our bar crawl.

It was off to St. Ann to catch a few morelibations at Good Friends Bar with man-ager Joey and new bartender Paul werebehind the bar. They were waaay to muchfun and after a few here we headed downthe street to Rawhide.

Neel was slingin’ cocktails for BringYour Own Meat Night. The charcoal grillwas hot and ready as regulars came on infor “meat” night. You supply the meat, andRawhide supplies all the fixins-steaksauce, bbq sauce, seasonings and thelike. You get to grill the meat to the desireddoneness and then you’re ready for thesides. The bar does up a salad and some

great baked potatoes along with all thefixins you can think of to put on a potato. Andyou never know which regular might showup with a surprise side like mac andcheese or even red velvet cake. It’s everyWednesday beginning at 7pm. Get thereon time cause the grill fills up fast. If youdon’t then you’ll have to wait for the sec-ond, third or even sometimes fourth roundon the grill.

We headed to St. Louis Street wherewe got a couple at Le Roundup with Carolwhose always a scream, before headingto the Double Play where we caught upwith Trevor behind the bar. Our next stopwas right down St. Louis to the CornerPocket where we caught the lovely MissAshlee slingin’ ‘em here.

It was off to North Rampart to SocietyPage and was it festive. Rene was slingin’cocktails and many of the regular partygoers were in the house enjoying theevening.

A short walk down Rampart landedus at Ninth Circle where Lil was behind thebar. The music here is always a treat,mostly of the circuit variety, but not so loudthat you can’t talk.

Our last stop would be a little furtherdown to Starlight By The Park where Chriswas doin’ the honors behind the bar. Here

cw6by Rip & Marsha Naquin-DelainE-mail: [email protected]

Tuesday evenings usually startfor us over at Cowpokes whereBartender of the Year Lance

slings cocktails. It’s always fun to catch upon his latest escapades and which clerkfrom which eatery he’s had a spat with.Yes, Lance can certainly be high mainte-nance, right Jim?

We stopped in at the Phoenix for a fewcocktails with Mike and ran into Red. Aftercatching up on the latest, we headedacross the street.

Vaughn was slingin’ cocktails at AboutTime. Brotherhood’s Don was in giving usall the details on “The Great Cook Off”following the Easter Parade at 7pm onEaster Sunday, April 8. You can get somegood eatin’ while helping out Brotherhoodwith a $10 donation.

Next up was 3 for $5 Tuesdays withMarty followed by Rene at The Friendly Bar.This is one day where you will most likelyrun into several of the Betties or maybeone of the other colorful personalities thatfrequent this neighborhood establish-ment.

After a few rounds at The Friendly, weheaded back to the Quarter to catch upwith DB behind the bar at The GoldenLantern. DB is taking Donnie Jay’s shiftswhile he recovers from foot surgery. TheLantern, in the past couple of years, hasreturned as the gathering place for manyof the locals that live nearby, or throughoutthe Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. Theintimate atmosphere leads to involvingeveryone in the conversation going on atthe moment.

St. Patrick’s Day, Saturday, March17th was upon us. EasterGrand Marshal Tom “Rona”

Conners was in for the weekend so wepicked him up before heading to theMarigny. We always catch the DowntownIrish Parade at Franklin and Royal. Theparade usually gets down here by 7 or7:30, so we got there by 6 to get a parkingspace, and were we in luck, parking onlya block away.

First stop was Cutter’s which wasalso celebrating its second anniversary.The place was packed with JR slingin’cocktails. We saw many of the Cavaliersand New Orleans Bears here. Jimmy wasserving up some of his sweet baked cornedbeef and all the other Irish “fixins” whileMac and Dudley were keeping the barstocked for JR. About that time, bartenderPoncho arrived in his homemade kilt forhis girlie man look. It was quite festive andwe got to visit for some time.

It was getting close to 7 so we headednext door to Big Daddy’s to catch Wayneand Rusty behind the bar. They were work-ing there tits off while the gang here en-joyed some of Miss Rusty’s famous cornedbeef and cabbage.

Then we heard the sirens and thecrowd was out the door jamming bothsides of the street. The Downtown Irishhad arrived. The parade goers were avision to see with the straight drunks, gaydrunks, those in between and then therewas Princesse Stephaney. The Irishmen

we ran into a couple of friends and after afew more rounds we headed back to Bour-bon and home for the evening.

It’s late Friday and after dropping offEaster Grand Marshals VIII Michaeland Tom (Rona) at The Corner

Pocket following the big Spring Fever Galaat Cowpokes, we headed to our parkinglot.

From there we decided to stop in at Ozfor a few nightcaps. Karbin, aka KabrinaWatson (Crack Whore II), was on stageherding the beefcake for the midnight StripOff Contest. Cutie Andrew was behind thebar and served up our drinks. Karbin hadthree contestants - Nate, Tim and Shan-non vying for the $100 cash prize. Votingwas done by audience response andbeefy Shannon took home the $100.Congrats!

Crack Whore IV Janice popped inabout that time and we talked some aboutthe upcoming Crack Whore Ball on March26. Oz’s Glenn joined us a short time laterand let us know he’d be attending the ballfor the first time. Glenn, a virgin? At hisage? Oh well, by the time y’all read this theball will be over and Glenn will no longerbe a virgin. Ha?!?

tasteless and boring the world in generalwould be without artistic queens/queersand what has come to be known as “TheGay Sensibility.” Mr. Mead exuded a senseof world weary sadness and isolation inhis moving interpretation.

Once again Keith Launey in the role ofthe potentially violent hustler (Karl) wasvery effective and sexy. In the role of twooutrageous tenants of the lead character,our sad, sad even though “well off” deco-rator, antique shop owner, and flagrantcross-dressing-in-private queen CandyDelaney, we found that Phillip Gordon(Avin Krenning) and Don McCoy (JerryJohnson) were excellent as bitchy sup-porting characters.

So, even with a weak script or low-bucks production values, good to excel-lent performers can often save a show.They did again this time.

Rising Water,A New Orleans Love Story

Currently premiering at Southern Rep is Rising Water, anoriginal play by Loyola Univer-

sity New Orleans professor, playwright,and author John Biguenet.

The plot concerns Camille (ChristineMcMurdo-Williams) and Sugar (DannyBrown) a married couple who are awak-ened in the middle of the night by the waterrising in their bedroom because the City ofNew Orleans is flooding after hurricaneKatrina. (Unknown to them, breaches haveoccurred in the protective levees of thecanals that drain water to LakePontchartrain.) The house is without elec-tricity. The couple rushes to their atticwhere they remain trapped as the watercovers the city to the rooftops of thousandsand thousands of homes. With only flash-lights for vision, they find themselves to-tally alone and surrounded by an attic fullof memorabilia. As they wait for rescuewhich might never arrive, they talk abouttheir lives together as a couple married for30 years. The talk about what might have

happened to cause the flooding. Eventu-ally they are able to remove an air vent, sothey can access their roof. They talk andthey talk. And the water rises higher andhigher. Act One occurs during late night,August 29, 2005; and Act Two occurs dur-ing early morning, August 30, 2005; nightswhich define Katrina’s arrival and depar-ture.

Mr. Biguenet is a native of New Or-leans and he writes from direct experi-ence of the massive devastation of hurri-cane Katrina. I am also a native, and washere during the terrifying storm. One wouldthink I would have responded very emo-tionally and with a draining catharsis to aplay by a fellow storm survivor. But I did not.I was somewhat bored. Why? Mr. Biguenetis a very talented writer. The audiencearound me seemed to revel in this darkcomedy and drama, and gave it a standingovation.

The play was written in a traditionallinear style. The dialogue captured thespeech patterns of a New Orleans nativeat least in the character of the husband,Sugar, perfectly portrayed by DannyBowen. Christine McMurdo-Wallis gave avivid performance, but not so much as acharacter born and bred in New Orleans.Her accent was more hard edged andMidwestern rather than regional. She couldhave moved here from Michigan as ateenager, contrary to the scripts referencesthat she was a local convent school girl.

The plot unfolds at the pace of some-one telling a story. That’s exactly what itwas. A story I have heard too many timessince that giant storm destroyed most ofmy town across the river, sitting on mystoop with a neighbor or sulking around ata cocktail party. It was much too long andI’ve heard it before. It was a mistake to reinin the playwright’s fertile imagination andrestrict him to this linear style. The possi-bility of creating some stunning theatrical-ity was missing such as demonstrated inhis The Vulgar Soul. Ignoring the outra-geous and/or disturbing style of non-tradi-tional drama was the wrong choice for this

trodding the boards ...from M-26

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gifted author. Theater of the Absurd mighthave done more to supply a more startlingdialogue and unusual theatrics moreapplicable to the epic, terrifying, existen-tial experience of such a personal uncon-trollable event. Like a war, an earth quake,a pandemic disease. That’s what it was.Something that simply cannot be con-tained within the gentle confines of a longstory or series of stories; a psychologi-cally and physically violent catastrophethat a traditional script could only suggestand not bring to birth with the necessaryand extraordinary violent elements neededto dramatize this event. How does oneconfine the exploding destruction of na-ture and the weakness of man into adrama? A nearly impossible task per-

haps. I was unmoved. Poetry perhaps, atilted and strange new language. A moreoriginal and creative concept of what workson the stage? A more dreamlike andsurreal approach to drama? I think so.

And I think Mr. Biguenet can do this.That’s why I consider this a good work inprogress. And not a great and wonderfullycathartic tragedy captured in some amaz-ing theatrical vision. That’s what I hopedfor and expected. Maybe it can’t be done.

Working with what we got, we got avery fine and professional production,something we have come to expect fromSouthern Repertory Theatre, especiallywhen the play was directed, as it was, bythe gifted Ryan Rilette. We got a verycreative and stunning set piece (the in-side of an attic which converts into a roof-top) by Geoffrey Hall. Good but somewhat

bland lighting by William Liotta; and goodcostumes by Michelle Bohn. The sounddesign by Jack Daniel Stanley was excep-tional. The gurgling water sounded likesome great epic monster with an all con-suming appetite.

Had the sturdy creative concept of theset design and the endlessly creative pos-sibilities suggested by the sound designbeen allowed to influence the playwrightsgrand and wonderful imagination; had thegates of his literary talents not been closed,we might have gotten a more exciting andvivid drama that somehow managed toimpart and instill the magnitude potentialin Rising Water, A New Orleans LoveStory instead of a long verbal storytellingaccount of something that was unique inthe history of tragic human events inAmerica. Hurricane Katrina’s advance

and terror was somewhat like nature atwar with the people of New Orleans, some-what like our Civil War under Lincoln, trulyawesome, horrifying and too large for asimple linear explanation. Too outside,above and below, human experience. Tooinexplicable! Too psychologically explo-sive.

I praise and applaud Mr. Biguenet’swork in progress. Audience reaction open-ing night seemed to indicate he had foundthe correct form and style. Perhaps thissmaller vision of so giant an experience ishopefully what major audiences will ex-pect and be able to accept. I sincerelyhope so. But I personally remain disap-pointed. What would our town’s play-wright Robert Tsarov create from such anevent? One can only dream.

trodding the boards ...from M-28


Gay Easter Parade Board Members &Spring Fever Hosts Electra City & Tittie

Toulouse open the show

Easter Grand Marshal (GEP) VIIOpal Masters

Miss Queen FashionsPassion Armani Cassidine

EGM V & King Cake Queen XIVPrincesse Stephaney

Appletini, Starlight & Zoo Revue’sSandy Phillips

EGM VI & Southern Decadence GrandMarshal XXXIII Lisa Beaumann

Amon Ra’s Crystal Charbonnet

Raven Thunder

Zoo Revue’s Ava Sinclair

Miss Gay Pride Elizabeth

Easter Grand Marshal VIIITom “Rona” Conners

Bronze Sponsor ET does a specialnumber

Miss Queen Fashions Passion & CW VIIAletha (of Lafitte’s fame) back up ET

Gay Easter Parade Board’sTittie Toulouse

Tiffany Alexander

EGM IV Electra City & GEP BoardMember Tittie Toulouse flank top

Cream Balloon ($300) &Red Mom ($425) Egg bidder

King Satyricon V Tony Leggio

Presenting Sponsor Queen Fashions’Electra City & Tittie Toulouse flank topGreen Egg ($125) & signed Spamalot

bidder EGM VIII Michael Elias

EGMs VIII Michael Elias & Rona Connersflank GEP Silver

Sponsor Lee Worrells

EGMs VIII Michael Elias & Rona Connersflank Bronze Sponsor ET

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